Day 9, Drive to BC

We packed up the Impreza and stopped at Ricky's for breakfast. Mike took the wheel as he has been most of the time around Calgary. He knows where he's going and I've done enough driving just to get us out here. We stopped just after the entrance to Banff and I took the wheel after we snapped a bunch of pix. Construction was happening all over the road so the going was slow at times. They are 4-laning the highway from Kamloops all the way to Banff over the next couple of years so things will be even better. But not a great time to be making the drive. One thing they are adding in Banff is wildlife bridges (pic below). They have fenced off the edges of the highway but are putting in bridges complete with trees and undergrowth for animals to cross the highway and by all accounts it is working as collisions with the critters is down.

The views are stunning so much so that I had to quit trying to see things and concentrate on the road. That is tough when you look up and can't see the top of the mountain that starts it's rise just a few hundred yards out the window. Mike took the drivers seat again at Revelstoke after gassing up the car and ourselves. It was too hot to sit so we just kept on going.


We got into Kamloops and the temperature on the dash read 38, we really didn't want to leave the car but Mike had another call from nature and I took another turn at the wheel. The road was now a 4 lane divided run of 350 km to Langley. The Coquihalla Highway zooms along but always going up or down, theres not a flat spot on it. I was surprised that the TransCanada wasn't part of it. More on the TC route later.
We got to the Wicklund's place at about 7pm Pacific time and could hear Susan screaming "they're here, they're here" from the street. We had a nice quiet supper with Kev and Sue while we caught up. Even doing only a little more than half the driving had me exhausted, it was a long day and bed felt great.